Various coin operated vending and dispensing apparatus are well known in the prior art. Generally these dispensing apparatus are coin operated to dispense packaged items such as candy or cigarettes. In the case of cigarette vending machines, the cigarettes are generally packaged and dispensed in multiple units such as packages of twenty. In the past, due to the costs involved in operating a vending machine and the low costs of a single cigarette, it has generally not been economically or commercially practical to dispense items such as cigarettes in individually packaged units. Because of today's increased costs for cigarettes and many other items however, it has now become economically practical to operate vending apparatus for dispensing individually packaged units of an item.
The present invention is directed to a coin operated dispensing apparatus capable of dispensing cylindrical items such as individually packaged cigarettes. Generally stated the dispensing apparatus of the invention comprises a vertically mounted storage magazine for storing a plurality of cylindrical items to be dispensed, a dispensing gate rotatably mounted across an outlet opening of the magazine for retaining or discharging the items from the magazine, and a coin operated weighted balance beam coupled through a linkage to the dispensing gate for operating the gate. The balance beam is normally positioned by a counterweight to hold the dispensing gate in an outlet blocking position in which the items are retained in the magazine. In operation the balance beam can be shifted by the weight of a coin for rotating the dispensing gate from the outlet blocking position to a discharge position in which a single item is allowed to drop through the outlet opening of the magazine for dispensing.